Tolkan, known for portraying authoritarian figures, died ‘peacefully’ in Lake Placid, New York, his agent said
James Tolkan, known for his roles as an authoritarian figure in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94.
Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died “peacefully”, but no cause of death was given.
Continue reading...Teenager alleged she faced racism from teacher who told her to ‘go back to her country’ for refusing to stand for pledge of allegiance
A Palestinian middle school student in Michigan who was publicly admonished for refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance as part of a personal protest against the war on Gaza has settled with her school district following a lawsuit around her first amendment free speech rights.
The teenager, identified as DK in court documents, said she faced racism from a teacher at the West Middle school in Canton, Michigan, after she did not participate in the pledge. The teacher reportedly told DK to “go back to her country”, Fox 2 Detroit reported.
Continue reading...Secretary of state Marco Rubio repeats administration’s belief that US can achieve its aims without a ground war
Amid tentative White House efforts at diplomacy to end the war in Iran, US troops have also been arriving in the region to deliver what Donald Trump has hoped could be a knockout blow if he can’t negotiate a ceasefire with Tehran.
Thousands of US marines aboard navy amphibious ships from the 31st and 11th expeditionary units have been deployed to the Middle East from Asia. Another 2,000-odd paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne are also being sent to the theatre – they are tasked with deploying worldwide within 18 hours of notification and execute parachute assaults, including against a “defended airfield” to prepare for further ground operations.
Continue reading...Bill passes by 213 to 203 votes in move prolonging weeks-long budget standoff that has disrupted travel
US House Republicans rejected a bipartisan Senate deal to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security and instead passed their own funding measure late Friday, extending a weeks-long budget standoff that has disrupted travel.
The stopgap bill, which proposes funding the DHS in full for eight weeks, passed by 213 to 203 votes after Republicans in the lower chamber refused to take up a Senate-passed deal that excluded money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.
Continue reading...AI-generated footage depicts group of men performing a corrido, singing phrases including ‘return to your roots’
An AI-generated video from the US embassy in Mexico encouraging migrants to “self-deport” has sparked disbelief and outrage online.
The video posted this week on official embassy social media accounts depicts a group of men wearing black caps and sporting tattoos performing a kind of traditional Mexican ballad known as a corrido.
Continue reading...More than 850 public demonstrations of support held since start of war and at least 1,400 arrests, research reveals
Iran’s regime has organised more than 850 public demonstrations of support of the government since the beginning of the war and launched a continuing crackdown on unrest that has led to at least 1,400 detentions, research reveals.
The high number of pro-regime gatherings and the increasing number of detentions underlines the resilience of the Islamic Republic despite a month-long campaign of intensive airstrikes by the US and Israel, experts said.
Continue reading...Amanda Smith was reunited with her mother, Michele Hundley Smith, on Thursday after decades-long search
A North Carolina woman whose mother was missing without a word for 24 years before authorities managed to locate her – alive and well – has reunited with her and says she forgives her.
“I know everything is not black and white – there’s a whole gray area,” Amanda Smith said of her mother, 62-year-old Michele Hundley Smith, after they embraced in front of a courthouse on Thursday. “And so I mean, look – life’s too short for me to hold a grudge against her because she’s my mom.”
Continue reading...Two others injured after sightseeing aircraft comes down on remote beach on Na Pali Coast
A tourist helicopter crashed on a remote beach off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, killing three people and injuring two others, authorities said.
The helicopter was carrying one pilot and four passengers when it crashed on Thursday afternoon at Kalalau Beach, the Kauai fire department said. The beach is on the Na Pali coast on Kauai’s north shore. The area is otherwise reachable only by hiking or boat.
Continue reading...Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to ‘stand tall against authoritarianism’ and resist free-speech threats
The actor Jane Fonda joined journalists, musicians and writers outside Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in urging US citizens to “break your silence” and “stand tall against authoritarianism”.
At a damp but defiant rally hosted by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment on Friday, around a hundred invited guests gathered to hear speakers and singers rail against book bans, political censorship and other threats to free speech under Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Missile fired from Yemen the first since the Iran war began and came hours after the US secretary set a new timeline for the conflict
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have confirmed that they launched an attack on Israel for the first time since the outbreak of the Israel-US war on Iran, marking their entry to the conflict just hours after Marco Rubio said the US expected to conclude military operations within “weeks, not months”.
While Israel was again hitting targets across Iran’s capital on Saturday, it identified what it said was a missile launched from Yemen. The Houthis said the attack came after continued targeting of infrastructure in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, adding that their operations would continue until the “aggression” on all fronts ends.
Continue reading...Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany were accused of lying on document used to enter Taylor’s house on night of shooting
A federal judge has dismissed charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of falsifying the warrant used to enter Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night police shot her to death.
Charles Simpson, a US district judge, issued a one-page ruling on Friday throwing out charges against Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, two former officers involved in crafting the Taylor warrant.
Continue reading...Mayor of Hartford has fired a white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis nine times
A white Connecticut police officer who fatally shot a Black man 30 seconds after arriving at the scene, where three fellow officers had spent several minutes trying to de-escalate the situation, was fired Friday.
Arunan Arulampalam, Hartford’s mayor, said in a statement that he terminated Officer Joseph Magnano effective immediately in connection with the 27 February shooting of Steven Jones, who was on a city street holding a knife. The killing came eight days after a different Hartford officer fatally shot another man in a mental health crisis.
Continue reading...Two convoy vessels that were supposed to get to Havana by Wednesday have made it to Cuba, says US Coast Guard
Two sailing boats that went missing while carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba have safely reached the Caribbean island, the US Coast Guard said on Friday.
Earlier in the day Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, had said his country would do everything it could to save the people on the two boats that disappeared while travelling to Cuba from Mexico.
Continue reading...Former talent agency boss had closer relationship with sex offender than thought, and supported him after 2009 arrest
A female executive at the top of the modelling industry had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and introduced him to women on the agency’s books, a Guardian investigation has found.
Until last November, Faith Kates ran Next Management modelling and talent agency, which has represented the likes of Alexa Chung, Milla Jovovich and Billie Eilish, a position she held for decades as the founder of the business. She stepped down quietly just weeks before the first major Epstein files were released, saying she intended to focus on charity work.
18 July 2009 10.18am
I am and will always be your friend...Unconditionally...will always be there for you.
5 September 2009 7.47pm
Thinking of you a lot and hoping you are finally enjoying some please [sic] and quiet..know you are always in my thoughts and prayers. You are a good friend my dear friend..
5 September 2009 7.54pm
thanks,, lets get back to work.
Continue reading...House of Representatives still needs to act before funded agencies such as airport security can reopen, CNN reports
The US Senate has passed legislation that will finance most of the Department of Homeland Security but withhold funds from ICE and part of Customs and Border Protection, the office of the Senate Democratic party leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement.
The agreement would fund DHS components such as the Transportation Security Administration and US Coast Guard, the statement said. CNN reported that the House of Representatives will still need to act before funded agencies within the department can reopen.
Continue reading...Lawmakers earlier passed bill to rename 31 March holiday following sexual abuse allegations against labor leader
California governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation Thursday renaming Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day in the wake of shocking allegations that the labor leader sexually abused women and young girls.
The bill, passed by the state senate earlier on Thursday, authorized the renaming ahead of the state holiday on 31 March. The state has observed the holiday honoring Chavez, who in the 1960s built a major farm-worker labor rights movement California’s agricultural heartland, for more than two decades.
Continue reading...Petition seeks accountability from Salvadorian authorities over human rights violations at notorious Cecot facility
A group of 18 Venezuelan men whom the US expelled a notorious Salvadorian mega-prison are demanding that Salvadorian authorities be held internationally accountable for violation of human rights – detailing new allegations of torture, sexual assault and medical neglect.
A new petition, filed on Thursday before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleges that El Salvador violated the human rights of these men, who were expelled to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) last year without charge.
Continue reading...President’s popularity top of mind at another weird and wild cabinet meeting – riff on merits of Sharpies included
They have become so notorious for displays of flattery and obsequiousness that critics have drawn comparisons with North Korea. Thursday’s cabinet meeting at the White House was no different.
Doug Burgum, the US interior secretary, outflanked his fellow praise singers by saying he believes that Venezuela – which the US attacked in January – intends to honour the president with a statue.
Continue reading...US president says he is ‘very disappointed’ as he again lashes out at allies’ lack of involvement in Iran war
Donald Trump has dismissed British warships as “toys” in his latest jibe at Nato countries for their lack of involvement in the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Speaking at the White House on Thursday, he claimed he had told the UK: “Don’t bother, we don’t need it.”
Trump has previously alleged that he requested two aircraft carriers from the UK that Keir Starmer had initially rejected and then offered to send. No 10 has denied that a request was made or denied.
Continue reading...Some people are opting not to travel at all amid what they call ‘a manufactured crisis by the Trump administration’
Passengers across the US have had their travel plans upended by the latest Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which has triggered widespread staffing shortages at airports as security employees go weeks without pay.
“We are returning from St Thomas, US Virgin Islands to Boston today and it took fully three hours to get through US customs. Absolutely insane,” Boston-based passenger John Hildebrandt told the Guardian.
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